some creatively adventurous ideas for reducing expenses so that more money is available for earthship construction. A way to come up with more of these is to ask yourself how you can achieve the basic goal(of whatever) without spending as much money. Examples:

1) How can I shelter myself inexpensively?

Free quarters in a caretaker position Motor home Tent Shared room in a house (1/4 rent)

2) How can I feed myself inexpensively?

Eating lower on the food chain so food is cheaper Growing more Growing it at the earthship site--children who are too small to pound can plant/weed/water/trellis/ harvest and do some food prep A second job in a restaurant a few nights a week will gain extra money and can lead to several days of free food from the leftovers split among the staff during a time of the day when it's too dark to build outside.

3) How can I reduce my entertainment expenses?

The best answer here might be that you have a group of friends who thinks tire pounding together is the most fun thing going :-). Otherwise, free concerts, group music sessions, and potlucks are cheaper than their commercial counterparts. If you go through every aspect of your life like this, you will be amazed at what you can come up with. Some books that help in terms of seeing the possibilities that other people have come up with are three books by Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced decision) called The Tightwad Gazette I, II, III. She herself is extremely creative at saving money. She and her husband have six children and managed to save for a large New England farm house (2500+ sq feet) with attached barn on less than $38,000 a year. The books also include many ideas from subscribers to her former newsletter. Many of the ideas I found usable for myself, but even ones that don't apply to my situation are useful in terms of jump starting my creative thinking.

Some people criticize some of Amy's ideas for being too extreme (wonder what they would say about earthships?), but even if you only did 70 percent of what she suggests, it could make a big difference in reaching your goals faster.

Another book that can be very helpful is Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's Your Money or Your Life. They lay out a well organized strategy for reducing debts and expenditures and increasing savings and interest income. Developing their plan to the fullest would allow you to live on the interest from your savings. Joe developed this strategy when he was young and retired at 30. Then he spent the next 28 years doing things he valued. Unfortunately he died early this year at the age of 58. Fortunately, he was not one of the many who planned to begin living his life at age 65.

To me YMoYL is good for a basic structure and TWGI, II, III are great for creative solutions and positive attitude. Checking these four books out of the library will immediately save you about $47 over buying them---hmm how many stakes is that?

About Earthship Biotecture

Earthship construction drawings are designed to meet standard building code requirements so you can get a permit no matter where you are. Earthship Biotecture is beyond LEED Architecture. Earthships are green buildings that meet standard building codes. EarthshipBiotecture is based on the work of principal architect, Michael Reynolds. (see: media resume)